We are still hoping to be China bound by Thanksgiving, amazed at all God has done to answer our simple prayer to please prepare Lucy’s heart to join our family.  The team that visited her orphanage this month (that I mentioned here and on Facebook) have sent us stories and pictures and videos that amaze our worker at Lifeline.  A very different experience from the norm.  I keep trying to process it all and boil it down to a coherent story for a blog post and then I receive more pictures and “meet” another member from the team online… my head is swimming and my heart is full.

p.s.
Here is just one of many wonderful stories from the team’s week in China.
There are many more to be found if you scroll through Kelly’s blog.

Our Visa Applications were submitted
to the Chinese Consulate
in Chicago today!

The currier should return our passports to us on the 23,
the same day that our Article 5 should be ready to be
picked up from the US Consulate in Guangzhou.

We’ll be there soon, Lucy Joy!

We received a final update from Lucy Joy’s orphanage today!
She is growing!
She is now 50 lbs. and 50 inches tall…
I think I should have bought bigger jammies!

We also received word from her orphanage via our social worker that we could communicate with Lucy via China’s version of Skype-
QQ International.
We spent some time getting up to speed on how that works,
and hope to make an appointment with a contact at
her orphanage to do so soon.

Take a look at who is going to
China
with mom and dad!

We are sure she will be a big encouragement
to our Sparrow and a big help to mom and dad.

For those of you who “know”
China adoption,
our Article 5 has been dropped off
and we hope it will be ready to be picked up
in about a week and a half.
Pray with us that the holidays they have had recently
will not delay things?

Our adoption timeline is updated to reflect this progress!
Take a look at the sidebar to the right.

In other news…
I think we bought the cutest pajamas ever this afternoon
for Lucy Joy!

We think we have all of our paperwork issues figured out!
Taking these issues into account and also events and holidays in China
that can cause closings in September and October, we
are now hoping to travel in November.
We are trying to make the most of our time and are
busy preparing to meet our Sparrow and welcome her
into her forever family.

Here is a fun project we worked on today.
If you would like to order a set,
visit Jessica’s blog!

The Sparrow Fund is visiting
Lucy Joy’s orphanage next month!

They have created a registry on Amazon for items
that they hope to be able to bring.
You can take a look here!

We cannot wait to get to
Shaanxi and meet our own
Sweet Sparrow!

We have some clearances and paperwork that
need to be approved by US Immigration.
In part, this concerns our homestudy update
and Becca turning 18.  It could be a little tricky
to get everything approved and delivered where it needs to be
in the right order and in the right timing.
More fingerprints!
Our wonderful social worker at Lutheran Family Services here in Omaha is working away on our update which must be complete before we can submit everything to Immigration and our wonderful social worker at Lifeline in Alabama is communicating with Immigration to make sure they know we are indeed working on this issue.
We know that this is easy for our God…
so will you pray with us that He would have his hand on these things?

We have also sent another little care package to
Lucy Joy and her nannies.
Hopefully they will receive it this week.
Here is the picture that we were given of the items we picked out.

We cannot wait to be able to be able to deliver these little gifts in person!

Every good and perfect gift is from above…
James 1:17

We are excited to announce that on September 4 there will be a Noonday Trunk Show and Adoption Fundraiser in Omaha benefiting Lucy Joy’s Adoption Fund!

If you are interested in attending, please contact me for more details.
Everyone is welcome!

If you are not a local Omaha friend, or are unable to attend, but would like to purchase something as part of the trunk show and fundraiser, there are directions on how to do so online in the following excerpt from Noonday Ambassador, Elizabeth Perkinson:

Noonday Collection uses fashion and design to create economic opportunity the the vulnerable. Noonday Collection also has a heart for partnering with families who are in the process of bringing their children home to their forever families. Please join us as we partner with the Rothfuss family and their adoption journey to bring home their daughter, Lucy Joy. When you attend Kathy’s Noonday trunk show, you will not only create a marketplace for artisans around the globe, but also 10% of your purchases will go directly to the Rothfuss family. I hope you can join us for a fun evening of styling, storytelling and using your purchasing power for good!
If you cannot attend but would like to make a purchase with a purpose and partner with the Rothfuss family and their journey, you can do so at
www.elizabethperkinson.noondaycollection.com.
When you place an order,
please select ‘Elizabeth Perkinson’ as your Ambassador
and include ‘Kathy Mabrey’ as your Trunk Show Hostess.
Purchases can be made anytime between now and September 10th.

Oh my goodness…
We have found the absolute greatest thing
to get for Lucy Joy!

You can listen to samples of these
Chinese Children’s Classics
here.

What I am also excited about are the lyrics
found here that are in
English, Chinese, and Pinyin!

Take a look and you will see what I mean!

It is so fun to take a break from paperwork and
VISA applications, and trying to decide just
how many and which members of the Rothfuss family
are going to actually go to China…
(This is a very hard decision to make!)
and just imagine spending time with our Sparrow
and sharing fun things together like these songs.

Makes my heart happy!

Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
Proverbs 13:12

So, after the exciting news that we were
LOA
sunk in yesterday…
We started filling out forms and collecting documents so we could
submit our
I 800 to US Immigration.

Remember the chocolate cake?

Then today, our LOA arrived after being overnighted to us
by our worker at Lifeline in Alabama.
The hope was that we would be able to overnight everything right back to
her today.  Becca informed us that the UPS Store’s last pick up
for delivery tomorrow was 6:00pm tonight, so after Jason got home, we quickly finished gathering, copying, scanning, and signing and jumped in the car!

We arrived just in time!

Next on the list?
A home visit Wednesday morning from our social worker at
Lutheran Family Services to update our homestudy!